The present invention is directed to a restraining device for use on small animals which are used for animal experiments and in particular for restraining small animals such as rats (white rats), mice (house mice), guinea pigs or rabbits.
These small animals, and rats in particular, are very quick and have sharp incisor teeth and claws so that there is a danger that a researcher may get bitten or scratched by the animal when drawing blood from or giving an injection to said animal. For this reason, animals such as these are not restrained on a restraining plate until they have been anesthetized after being held by two researchers who have thick gloves on. Moreover, restraining devices in the prior art are inadequate in that they have a tendency to move with the rat when the rat is recovering from a narcotic state and becomes unruly. This has made it necessary that operations be conducted with the rat in a syncopic state. However, because continuous anesthetization eventually causes the death of the rat, it has previously been impossible to dray blood from the animal when restrained on the prior art restraining devices, and the use thereof has been limited to animal experiments conducted when the animals are in an anesthetized state.